BY JENNIFER BONCY
Pet Product News: Tell us about Pet Releaf’s origins. Why did you get into the
pet products industry?

Steve Smith: We started Pet Releaf
because of our own dog Mattie’s
struggles that came along with
old age and arthritis. Toward the
end of her life, she had a lot of
joint and inflammation issues.
It was heart wrenching to have
to watch her struggle with that
pain. At the time, the only option was for our vet to prescribe
her opiate painkillers. The damage to her liver and body made
her health go downhill even
faster. At that point, we knew
there had to be a better way. As a
family, we have always believed
in the power of the plant and in
healing our bodies naturally,
without harsh pharmaceuticals.
It just came together, and we
realized if people need cannabis
medicinally, then so do our beloved pet companions.

So, after extensive research
into the clinical studies that
have been done with cannabis—and cannabidiol (CBD) in
particular, we confirmed that
there are significant scientifically proven benefits from CBD.
That is when the light bulb went
on, and we moved to Colorado
so we could bring together a
team of experts who could help
us make the absolute best CBD
products possible.

PPN: Pet Releaf’s products are part of
a new niche in the market. Discuss
your products and their specific health
benefits.

SS: Even though people havebeen using cannabis for morethan 3,000 years, it is still such anew idea to the masses. At PetReleaf, we follow the science. Us-ing CBD in its whole plant formis the most bio-available and pro-vides the highest rate of healthbenefits compared to highlyprocessed CBD oils or powders,When produced to the high-est standards like we do at PetReleaf, CBD provides signifi-cant pain relief, alleviates sit-uational anxieties (fireworks,travel, lightning, etc.), reducesseizure frequency and severity,and actually is involved in allthe body’s systems and organs.Our own U. S. National Institutesof Health scientists agree withthat statement. Those scientistsalso state that CBD provides amassive boost to the immunesystem, an extremely potent an-ti-inflammatory effect and alsoactually slows the aging processin the brain. They wrote a pat-ent stating all of those conditionsamong multiple others whereCBD provides benefits.

The key is one must follow
the science to provide these benefits, and that is why we believe
Pet Releaf has proven itself to be
head and shoulders above any
other CBD product out there.
Our way is more expensive, but
it works.

Right now, we have CBD
products for both dogs and cats.
Our Edibites (CBD treats for
dogs) are available in two poten-cies. Regular Edibites are meant
for small- to medium-sized
dogs. Large Breed Edibites are
recommended for large-breed
dogs and provide double the
amount of CBD per treat. Giving your dog Edibites as a daily
treat is like giving them a superfood smoothie. They provide a
super immune boost from the
CBD and many other health
benefits from all of our other
whole food ingredients.

Our promise to our cus-tomers and retailers is that wewill never have any of those 12syllable words as any of our in-gredients. Organic, whole food,human-grade ingredients arewhat we stick to. As with allour products, we are the onlycompany that guarantees theactual amount of CBD in everyEdibite treat.

For dogs and cats with moderate to more serious issues, we
offer our CBD oils and our CBD
capsules. Our CBD Hemp Oil
100 is meant for smaller dogs
and cats, while the Hemp Oil 300
is recommended for medium- to
large-breed dogs. Our newest
product is our CBD Hemp Oil
Capsules, which provide 450 milligrams of CBD per bottle and an
alternative administration. We
are actually seeing a lot of our
human companions using the
CBD capsules. All three of these
products only have two ingredients, organic CBD oil and organic
coconut oil.

PPN: How did the market react to your
products?

SS: In the beginning, our products were a tough sell. When we
first started, my partner, Alina,
our sales manager, Chelsea, and
I would go door to door to local
neighborhood pet stores here
in Colorado and talk to people
about our products. Luckily,
Coloradans are pretty well educated on the benefits of the
cannabis plant. Even last year
at Global Pet Expo, the concept
was still very new to many store
owners.

For us, education is huge
when it comes to people understanding the difference between hemp and marijuana,
and understanding the benefits
of CBD. The positive responses from our retail partners and
our customers have been overwhelming. When people start
coming back to their retailer
with such positive, amazing results, they become loyal to our
brand and keep coming back
for more. We attribute this to
our passion for producing the
absolute best products with the
most wholesome ingredients.

We are happy to say that in justover a year, we are in more than500 stores and 40 states in theU.S., with multiple countriesthroughout the world.

PPN: What can retailers do to help dispel
the misconceptions some customers
might have about CBD-based products?

SS: We have been surprised tofind that many consumers un-derstand the difference betweenhemp and marijuana, but theredefinitely are still those peopleout there who think they’re go-ing to be getting their pets highif they use our products. That’swhy education is a huge deal tous. Not only do we make sure toeducate all of our retailers on thescience behind CBD, but we alsoeducate our consumers throughour website, social media andretail events. Our retailers lovethat we offer extensive trainingand provide brochures that ex-plain the difference between PetReleaf and other CBD pet com-panies. This really helps to dif-ferentiate us.

As CBD becomes more and
more accepted by the mainstream population and as domestic hemp farming becomes
more widespread, we truly
believe that this will be a significant product in the future.
Furthermore, as more consumers understand the true health

Providing Great ReleafBEHIND THE SCENESSteve Smith, president and co-founder of Pet Releaf in Denver, reveals how the companyis using the medicinal powers of cannabidiol to improve the lives of pets.

As a family, we have always believed in the power of the plant and in healingour bodies naturally, without harsh pharmaceuticals. ... We realized if peopleneed cannabis medicinally, then so do our beloved pet companions.